


Hold My Hand

by hoc_voluerunt



Category: Night at the Museum (2006 2009 2014), Night at the Museum (2006 2009), Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb
Genre: (Slightly), (for Secret of the Tomb), (sort of), First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Holding Hands, Internalized Homophobia, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Spoilers, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 16:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2857394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoc_voluerunt/pseuds/hoc_voluerunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'll take that hand now."</p><p>Focused on the end of <i>The Secret of the Tomb</i>. Jedediah and Octavius come to a realisation on their final night alive in New York.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's one bit of Latin which is pretty guessable, but I put the translation in mouseover text anyway because I'm a god damn nerd.

             “It really is quiet.”

            With Larry's oversized presence gone, Octavius' voice echoed feebly in the Hall of Miniatures. It was strange to see it as the real people must have seen it: silent and still, with every tiny person locked in place, no life in their posed forms. There was still some time until dawn – enough for them to climb down from the bench, and then up the walls to their dioramas.

            It was the last time that they would.

            “Wellp...” Jedediah sighed, thumbs hooked in his belt – “we'd best get started.”

            “Yes, I suppose we must.”

            It was not difficult. It was a climb they had made hundreds of times, especially in recent years, since Larry had taken over and they'd been allowed out of their little enclosed worlds. They made it without commentary this time, knowing when one or the other would need a supporting hand here, a hat held for a moment or a point towards a better foothold there. Crossing the wide, empty space of the floor was like crossing the American plains, or the vast Mediterranean. Their footsteps, quiet even to them, would have been silent to any other watchers.

            They stopped at the foot of the wall: the Wild West was to their left, Imperial Rome to the right, and they looked up at the spaces they knew so well, and would now only ever know.

            Jedediah swallowed.

            “I guess this is goodbye, partner,” he said, his drawl a little strained. Octavius stared up at what he could see of the columns and tiles of his home, and remembered how Pompeii had felt so familiar when they'd fallen in, with its wall paintings and architecture, and with an anachronistic cowboy at his side.

            “Jedediah...”

            “I know, I know it's hard now,” Jed was sighing, “but we made a promise, didn't we? Ahk's with his family now, and that's enough.”

            “That's enough,” Octavius echoed, and though he meant it, there was little heart in his tone. Again he spoke out, softly and carefully, still looking up at Rome. “Jedediah –”

            “Would a chest-bump make it any easier before we go?” Jed quipped, but his smile was tight, and Octavius, when he looked over, couldn't match it at all.

            “Oh, Jedediah,” he sighed, “I know we've thought it was over countless times – in Central Park, when the car flipped, when we thought the old night guards would get away with the tablet; when I lost you in Washington, when Kahmunrah had you trapped in that awful hourglass, and when we were stuck in the vents, and when the lava was –”

            “Hey, now,” Jed interrupted, raising one accusatory finger at his friend, “we said we wouldn't talk about that!”

            Octavius wanted to laugh and cry all at once. “Yes, you're right. I apologise.”

            “Anyway,” Jedediah went on, a little more softly, “it really _was_ over for a bit, tonight. On the roof.”

            Looking back up at Rome, Octavius sobered. “I wonder if it will be like that again, this time,” he said.

            “Nah,” Jed shrugged, “I guess it'll be like every other morning, won't it? We're just going to sleep. Only difference is, this time we won't wake up.” He sniffed, in that loud and boisterous manner he had which meant he was trying to hide it. Octavius looked over.

            “Tonight, on the roof, however...” he said. His voice went all quiet: really and genuinely quiet, not the fake-quiet thing he did when he wanted everyone to know he was having a moment. “Wh– what did it feel like? For you?”

            Jedediah watched him for a long moment, and then shrugged. “It hurt. Which was weird.” His head moved in a conceding nod. “Like everything was going stiff and weak all at once. Like I couldn't move.” Octavius said nothing, so Jed asked: “Was it like that for you?”

            “Yes.”

            “I could move, though,” Jedediah added. “Just a bit.”

            Octavius' eyes were lingering somewhere around Jedediah's ankles. “Yes, I remember.”

            Jed's hands turned to fists. “Aw, man,” he sighed through gritted teeth, “do I hafta spell it out?”

            With a sharp, almost fearful, movement, Octavius' gaze snapped up to Jed's face again. He let out a breath, which seemed to catch on a half-laugh.

            “I'm afraid you do,” he said, with a cracked voice.

            “Aw man, Occy, I can't – I mean –”

            “Jedediah, I –”

            “I'd real like to take that hand again.”

            Octavius' face softened, and he reached out – again, and for the last time – and watched as Jed's hand joined his between them, his wide brown glove engulfing Octavius' own, bare fingers. Leather creaked as their hands tightened, and Octavius tried to for a smile, but his helmet felt like it was rattling on his skull.

            “I don't want to go back,” he said. “Rome without you hardly feels like Rome at all.”

            “Rome without me is how it's meant to be, Occy,” Jedediah sighed. “Remember, we're museum pieces. We're history, right?”

            “I'd rather just be us.”

            They fell silent, and both noted to themselves the slight stiffening in their joints which heralded the approaching sun. The wall was high and sheer above them, their respective exhibits separated by a pillar of centuries which they had never managed to breach in competitive expansion.

            “We could just stay here,” Jedediah eventually said. “Larry'd have to put us away somewhere, just the two of us. Just you and me. Wouldn't fit in either world up there, would we?”

            Octavius laughed just once. “You remember his first night here?” he said. “When you captured me and took me away from my legion, and when the sun came up, I was still caught in the stocks with you –”

            Jedediah was chuckling in full force as he joined in. “With me standing over you all triumphant-like, feeling all smug for getting one over you.”

            “Larry gave us _such_ a talking-to!”

            They laughed together, in an awkward harmony, and the light from outside was grey with the oncoming dawn. The laughter died faster than it ever had before. It took a while, but again it was Jedediah who broke the silence while Octavius struggled with the hideous lump in his throat. The cowboy wriggled his fingers between Octavius' and grinned.

            “Who'da thought, huh?”

            Out of nowhere, Octavius flinched just slightly. When he spoke, his voice was hesitant, though he did not bodily move away.

            “Well, I suppose, in the extremity of facing death, one may...”

            Jedediah winced. “Oh, no, Octavius, I...”

            “I may have, erm – overstepped some boundaries, before, but I'm glad that we –”

            “No, you weren't, you weren't _overstepping,_ don't be crazy –”

            “In the end, at least, you must know that I value you as a fr-”

            “Man, Occy, don't _say_ it!” Jed burst out, at the same time as he turned and stepped forward, as if to face Octavius where their other hands were within reach of each other. “I know, all those other times, I turned you down, but you gotta know, I didn't mean – I mean, I _did_ mean – but y'know – I know Larry says it's a different time, but I can't help it if the boys – y'know, I'm a cowboy, they don't look too kindly on – well, sometimes, here and there, but as a proper – I mean, if it's more than a – if you were to – and I meant to turn you down, I did, but then we were _dying,_ and it was like everything would be okay just 'cause you were holding my hand, and I wanted that to last forever, y'know, and I wanted more of it to last forever, and I know we can't do that now, at the end, but I –”

            “Jedediah, I honestly do not understand half of what you're saying,” Octavius said, stunned, “but do you mean –”

            “I _mean,”_ Jed insisted – “I _mean_ that I – I wouldn't mind, at all – I _don't_ mind – I don't mind this. I don't mind it at all. Is what I mean.”

            “Jedediah...” Octavius looked at him, over his stupid crooked nose, with some of that old, pompous wonder on his face. “Oh, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, Jedediah –”

            The light in the room was more yellow than grey, now, and Octavius felt something burst in his chest, forcing him half a step forward until his arms were around Jedediah's broad, sandy frame, and Jed's hands were gripping his cape and the edge of his breastplate, and they were not, this time, going to shuffle away with an awkward glance.

            “We have to go back,” Octavius said, voice muffled through his mouth, gritted shut atop Jedediah's shoulder.

            “Our last night alive, and this is how we end up,” Jed laughed, a little wetly, and shoved his face more firmly between Octavius' decorations and the metal of his cheek-plate. His mouth was by the skin under Octavius' ear, visible between the sections of his helmet. “Who'da thought.”

            “If the old guards could see us now...”

            The dawn was almost upon them, and Octavius' right hand was in the locks of yellow hair at the base of Jedediah's neck, pushing up the brim of his absurd hat, already askew.

            “We must go, Jedediah.”

            “I don't wanna,” Jedediah choked back.

            “Neither do I, but we cannot –”

            “We can't stay here, we gotta – gotta do our jobs, be part of the museum –”

            “Jedediah –”

            “Aw, _hell_ _–”_

            They wrenched themselves apart, Jedediah running to the left and Octavius tripping to the right. They heaved themselves up, hand-by-hand, each foothold known, and, with their usual lack of grace, scrambled over the lips of their exhibits and sprinted into position. The others around them had not known that it had been their last night alive – they had only expected a few days off as Ahkmenrah and the tablet were sorted out in London – but here they were, all ready for another day being museum pieces and another night being alive, when they never would live again. Octavius hopped into his chariot, and wiped the tears from his eyes, as he stood before his arranged soldiers, and Jedediah mounted his horse and swallowed his fears, and plastered a grin on his face, and Octavius desperately thought _'amo, amo, Jedediah, te amo,'_ before –


	2. Chapter 2

             – Octavius breathed deep and harsh, and his eyes went wide to take in the shifting, stretching Romans, the Mayans across the room sighing with relief, and Larry's voice over the speaker.

             “Good night all! It's 2017 and time to welcome back our visitors from London, Akhmenrah and his tablet!”

             Octavius' second breath rushed from his lungs, and he stuttered in trying to speak too soon, stumbled in trying to leap forward too far. He took another breath.

             “Jedediah?”

             The room was beginning to fill with the babble of the waking miniatures, the rattle and chatter of the museum, the boom of Rexy's heavy steps.

             “Jedediah!”

             Octavius craned his neck around the edge of the Rome display, and heard the scrape and stamp of boots on sand, and a voice calling out as a blonde head and dark hat popped around the next corner.

             “Octavius?”

             He grinned and grinned, and relished the sound of Jedediah's whoops and cheers as he danced for joy, kicking the sand and throwing his hands in the air, causing Octavius to laugh and shiver with delight.

             “Well come on,” Jed was shouting, “get down, get a rope – someone get me a rope over here!”

             He disappeared from view, and Octavius spun about to grab the nearest soldier.

             “A rope, legate,” he commanded, “now!”

             The people were milling about, some climbing down out of the exhibit, some greeting each other and wondering about the three years they'd missed, while Octavius took the rope from his soldier and tied it to the nearest column, throwing the long tail out over the sheer wall's edge. As he slipped down, with grip firm and knees bent, he saw Jedediah's broad hat and blue shirt sliding down from the Wild West. He quickened his pace, determined to beat the damned cowboy, and lost by only a very small margin – but it was still margin enough for Jed to sprint over and grab him around the middle before he touched the ground, spinning him around as the he squawked and held onto his helmet.

             “Ah, gad darnit, Occy, this outfit's heavy,” Jed was grumbling, high-spirited and wild, as he dropped Octavius to the ground and didn't even let him stumble before he grabbed him and held him tight again. “I dunno,” he was babbling, “I dunno what to do, but can we do this, can we, I dunno, can we –”

             Octavius wriggled and struggled and extracted himself from Jedediah's grip, leaving one of his hands on Jed's shoulder and the other entwined in a thick-gloved grasp.

             “I'd like to,” he started – “I mean, we could – if you'd like –”

             “Aw hell, Occy, anything you want, I mean –”

             Octavius shoved himself forward, and kissed Jedediah squarely on the mouth. After a brief moment, Jedediah reared back.

_“Whoa,_ now, hold your horses, partner –”

             “Sorry, was that too much at once? I could –”

_“No_ -no-no-no-no! It was fine, it was good!”

             “I shouldn't have –”

             Jedediah tightened his grip on Octavius' hand to stop him retreating, and the soldier stuttered to a halt. Jed shuffled them closer to each other, and licked his lips, as his left hand slipped around the waist of Octavius' breastplate, his fingers curling under its edge and tickling against the tunic at his back. “We could maybe just...” he breathed, and his right hand rose to tug at the strings under Octavius' chin. The cheek-plates of his helmet fell loose, and Jedediah tugged off his glove with impatient teeth and spat it away so that, with averted gaze, he could touch his fingers to Octavius' cheek and temple and – “Just slow it down a little...” he added, and –

             It was gentle, and kind, and Octavius all but melted against him, pulled him closer, pressed his open lips to Jedediah's. Their arms were locking awkwardly over shoulders, and Octavius' loose helmet rattled and got in the way until he drew back just long enough to tear it off and drop it at his side and lean back in. Jedediah's hat had been bumped far back on his head and was in danger of joining the helmet on the floor, while his naked fingers raked through the short, dark, damp hair at the back of Octavius' skull.

             “Hey Jed! Octavius!”

             “Aw, _hell –”_

             “Jupiter above!”

             They sprang apart with a smacking of lips and a rattle of armour as Larry appeared. Immediately, the giant's eyebrows rose.

             “Oh!” he blurted. “So – are you – I mean, are you two...”

             “We were just –”

             “I mean, we're kinda –”

             “No judgement! I just wanted to know –”

             “It's a rather recent, you could say...”

             “It's great! But we're not really sure where we...”

             “Would it be best if I just – left you two alone for a bit?”

             Octavius and Jed nodded vigorously in unison.

             “Right, okay, I'm just gonna go... check on the constellations....”

             The two stood frozen in place until Larry had tip-toed his way between the rest of the scattered miniatures and left the room.

             “Right. Well.”

             “Where were we, Jedediah...?”

             “I think we were about...”

             He stepped forward, and manoeuvred Octavius' arms so that his hands were firmly placed on Jedediah's neck and lower back. In turn, he looped his left arm around Octavius' shoulders and used his right to tug forcefully on the lower edge of Octavius' breastplate and draw him even closer with a hand sliding along Octavius' belly to his waist and the dip of his back. By the time he was done, Octavius' entire torso had gone rigid and his eyes were wide.

_“Jedediah...”_ he burst out, on an explosive sigh, and Jed's mouth went crooked with smug satisfaction.

             “Now _that's_ more like it.”

             Octavius tugged off Jedediah's hat and tossed it aside with an uncharacteristically careless gesture. “Now where's that gods-forsaken car,” he murmured between presses of his lips to Jedediah's cheek and jaw and mouth – “I've wanted to kiss you in that seat ever since I saw you behind the wheel...”

**Author's Note:**

> I saw the movie today; I wrote fic this evening; I fact-checked and proofread tonight; I am posting now. I guarantee nothing but the fact that I am very very emotional about Octavius and also currently very nostalgic for the old LJ fandom I used to be a part of. Hope it's enjoyed!
> 
> Also, I won't lie, the Latin is a very vague reference to [_Amo, Amas, Amat_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/275447) by [Verecunda](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Verecunda), who is fantastic. uvu


End file.
